17 - conversation with ALA-WO (Jessica M.), decided to hold off on formal support for PAHR (Preserving the American Historical Record, http://www.archivists.org/pahr/index.asp) until new bill is introduced

18 - submitted final "From the Chair" column. Wrote an essay about all the "Once and Forever" documents librarians in our midst.

18 - confirmed with LegComm Chair (Kirsten C.) that GODORT is following PAHR and will work on a resoluation for Annual, if appropriate

19 - congratulated GODORT member Rebecca Blakeley on being named an LJ Mover & Shaker, 2009

25 - sent letterhead letters to all GODORT award winners and their supervisors.

April

1-17 - mailed a dozen letterhead letters to Round Table chairs and ACRL sections, asking for their participation in "Government Information: A Topic for All Librarians." Followed up with phone message and e-mail.

7 - GODORT's W. David Rozkuska Scholarship scholarship has been added to giveALA (ALA's online donation site). Big thanks are due to the persistence of several of our members.

7 - finished mailing official letters of notification for GODORT award and scholarship winners (thanks to Jim Church for preparing the letters).

19-22 - attended Depository Library Council Spring Meeting, Tampa FL. Enjoyed many conversations with GODORT colleagues; listened with interest as Deans discussed the challenges of regionals and large selectives. Shared remarks ("Reflections of a Mid-Career Government Documents Librarian") during GODORT's Tuesday evening slot, with James Jacobs as the evening's videographer. Laura Horne facilitated discussion about the specialization of government documents librarianship.

28 - Duncan Aldrich tells us that e-lists will be reconfigured at the University of Nevada-Reno (home of the GODORT Steering e-list or "reflector"); we held a quick Steering poll to confirm switch to ALA Connect for Steering reflector (we had previously considered Google groups but prefer this ALA-based service).

14-22 - much pre-Midwinter prep, e-mail conversations with Steering about expectations. Submitted my own Program proposal for Washington DC 2010: Archivists & Librarians: Together We Can Save Congress.

20 - much dialogue with GODORT listserv moderators about best use of listserv, moderating practices.

22-26 - attended ALA Midwinter Meeting, Denver. Enjoyed a team-building exercise with Steering in addition to the usual GODORT activities. GODORT Update on Non-governmental Organizations (NGO's) a high point. Amy West & I attended focus group on ALA's proposed new "Data Dashboard."

18 - more e-mail dialogue with Society of American Archivists, Congressional Papers Roundtable (SAA-CPR) about the kind of work they do

18 - declined invitation from Prof. Kip Currier, University of Pittsburgh School of Information Sciences, to have GODORT "sponsor" a summer course there on Copyright & Fair Use. Rationale, after Steering discussion, is that GODORT may not be best ALA unit to cover those two topics.

12 - shared information with GODORT Steering re: proposed ALA-wide FDLP "Assembly." Called for discussion. We don't have enough information at this point; will wait before sharing with general membership as there is nothing concrete to report.

19 - shared msg with members seeking input on the future printing of the "big, heavy conference programs"

20 - email exchange with SLA thanking Eileen Deegan for her work as SLA-DGI Chair. Amy West & I are introduced to incoming Chair Chris Zammarelli (NOAA). Setting the gears in motion for 2009 collaboration with SLA-DGI at DLC meeting in October.

20 - email exhchange with FAFLRT Chair about "Libraries in Tough Economic Times" workshop she is organizing in Washington DC, March 2009. Can we help?

4 - wrote letter of recommendation for a GODORT member, confirming active contributions to the organization

5 - phone meeting with Linda Whitaker of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) Congressional Materials Roundtable. Fruitful discussion of the way librarians and archivists can work together to improve the curation of Congressional materials in both libraries and archives. Resolved to write reciprocal essays for each other's newsletters and submit a joint program proposal for ALA Annual 2010.

5 - phone call with Tanya Finchum, Oklahoma State University regarding her launch of a series of oral histories to be conducted within GODORT. I will designate an Oral Histories working group with Finchum as Chair; call for three more volunteers. She will begin her oral histories with Larry Romans and Bernadine Abbott Hoduski.

17 - GODORT Steering/ ARL Conference call. Chair Elect Amy West, Legislation Committee Chair Kirsten Clark and I met with Prue Adler (ARL Executive Director), Discussed their 4-page "framework document" on Future Directions for the FDLP, see http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/bpfldpfinal.pdf as well as other papers on the FDLP. The ARL piece reflects dialogues with library directors, including Regional FDL directors. At least several individuals aspire to the post of Public Printer in the new administration. This is promising and shows a real interest in the future of government information dissemination.

18 - sent clarification to membership and GOVDOC-L regarding the various studies on the future of the FDLP (emphasizing that none are authored by GODORT).

September/October 2008

September

4: replied to message from the Society for American Archivists regarding collaboration on web resources and programming re: Congressional papers and publications.

4: confirmed with Conference Chair Carol Hanan (and in a message to GODORT membership) that all future announcements regarding the selection of a GODORT Hotel will be made to GODORT@ALA.ORG only, not to GOVDOC-L.

15: relayed messages from Jim Church to Starr Hoffman regarding problems with ALA web form for Notable Documents submissions. Starr worked with Louise Gruen at ALA and created a workaround for us. Jim followed up with messages to listservs, etc.

11: Phone conversation with John Shuler (UIC) and Amy West (GODORT Chair Elect) regarding Urban Planning preconference, Chicago 2009. Preconference is on track, with many promising details to be nailed down.

16: Planning with Eileen Deegan, SLA-DGI, for session at Depository Library Conference in October 2008 (also met with her in person June 18)

30: Worked with Sarah Gewirtz, Fed Docs Task Force Coordinator, to solicit responses on the Public Service module of GPO's Self-Study of a Federal Depository Library. Received communication back from GPO thanking us for input and also clearing up some confusion. See Sarah Gewirtz for more information.

10: Requested Dan Cornwall and Justin Otto to represent GODORT and to work with GPO on interface design for the first public release of the Federal Digital System (FDsys); testing to take place June 30-July 3.

16-18: Various telephone and e-mail exchanges with ALA/WO and COL Chair regarding GPO's decision to extend comment period for "Report on Regionals."

23: Conference call with Prue Adler (ARL), Cass Hartnett and Amy West regarding the GPO Report on Regionals and both the ARL and GODORT response.

16: Conference call with ALA/WO regarding the GPO Study on Regionals and the GIS/GODORT Leg Comm. meeting on the FDLP.

22: Telephone call with Corey D. Williams Green, Associate Director, ALA-WO, Office of Government Relations - on the April COL conference call and their interest in developing an Association response to the JCP requested study on regional libraries.

23-29: Worked with the GODORT Strategic Planning Committee to draft and distribute a letter to former GODORT members (who are still ALA members) about their experiences with GODORT.

24-28: Worked with Justin Otto, Fed Docs Task Force Chair; Kevin McClure, Legislation Committee Chair; Cass Hartnett, Chair-elect to craft GODORT response to COL/GIS request for information on JCP study (Please note that this is ongoing and will be sent to the membership for comments before it is returned to COL/GIS)

25: Worked with Mary Horton to identify a volunteer to represent GODORT on the GPO project to convert shelf list cards to machine readable form (requested by Geoff Swindells, DLC Chair). Patty Phipps from Georgia Tech volunteered to represent the GODORT Cataloging Committee.

VOTES: Approved the expenditure of $325.00 by the Program Committee to provide the hotel costs for one pre-conference speaker.

January/February 2008

Jan. 6: Tasked Federal Documents Task Force and GITCO to review the EPA documents released by GPO and to report back to Steering.

Jan. 11-14: ALA Mid Winter Meeting.

Jan. 28: Completed contacts with all GODORT Award winners for 2008.

Jan. 29: Completed and mailed GODORT's response to the "Draft Protocol for Responding to a Formal Request for an 'Official' ALA Position."

Feb. 1: Tasked Education Committee to follow up with GPO regarding the use of OPAL to distribute programming/training opportunities.

Feb. 11: Working with the Chair of the Round Tables Coordinating Assembly and several RT Chairs prepared a letter for Leslie Burger, past-President, on the efforts underway to develop services and goals for ALA, seeking to have RTs included in that process.

Feb. 14: Presentation on the history and future of government information and the FDLP at the 125th anniversary celebration of West Virginia University Libraries membership in the FDLP.
http://www.libraries.wvu.edu/news/

November 5. Worked with ALA/Chicago Membership staff to get five year list of former GODORT members (left ALA; left GODORT/stayed in ALA) to contact on behalf of Strategic Planning Committee.

November 6. Worked with Chair of Legislation Committee to draft response to request of support from Openthegovernment.org statement. After consultation with ALA/WO staff agreed that government information librarians should respond individually if they were interested.

November 19: Charged the Federal Documents Task Force to draft a letter of expectations for the new GPO Superintendent of Documents (per ALA’s request).

November 20: At the request of the GODORT Secretary drafted a letter of appreciation to Forrest Williams (Stat-USA) on his retirement.

December 8: Forwarded a draft resolution on Tribal Colleges joining FDLP to relevant stakeholders for review.

December 10: Forwarded a draft statement of expectations for the new Superintendent of Documents to relevant stakeholders for review. (second draft sent on 12/17). Final version of the approved letter was sent on 1/2/08.

December 10: Charged Legislation Committee to draft resolution in support of GPO's funding requests.

December 11: Charged Cataloging Committee to review the ALCTS response to the LC Working Group Proposal. ALCTS is responding for ALA and GODORT has endorsed in principle the ALCTS response.

December 11: Attended the GPO holiday reception.

December 12: Participated in the ALA Dialogue on Government Information.

December 12: Prepared a letter of appreciation for Tara Olivero, ALA-WO.

December 18: Participated in a meeting at GPO on the new Superintendent of Documents appointment.

December 19/20: Exchanged E-mail with the President of ACRL about improving communication and working together on areas of shared interests.

Two votes:

• Spend $100.00 to fund survey of membership via Survey Monkey.

• GODORT recommendations for DLC.

September/October 2007

Participated with Legislation Committee Chair, staff from ALA/WO, GIS, COL, Staff of AALL and other government information librarians to draft testimony in preparation for the hearing on Robert Tapella's appointment to be Public Printer of the United States.

Participated in a conference call with ALA/WO staff and Camila Alire, COL Chair, on the Tapella nomination.

Met with Prue Adler, Executive Director of the Association of Research Libraries, Lynne Bradley (ALA/WO) and Cass Hartnet, to discuss ways to work more effectively on areas of shared interest regarding government information.

Participated in a conference call with GPO Staff (minutes sent to Steering Reflector).

Worked with Kevin McClure, Leg Comm. Chair and Jesse Silva to activate the NAAN in support of ALA/WO's efforts to move H.R. 1255 to a vote.

GPO Conference Call:
Thank you all for the valuable in-put on the GPO Conference Calls. It appears from the general tone of the responses that continuing the conference calls is important to the members of Steering (and, I suspect, to their Committees as well). I have recently exchanged e-mails with Ric Davis at GPO and he is certainly interested in maintaining the communication link with GODORT as well. I will try to set up a call for September and will be shortly soliciting some members of Steering to participate and will be requesting agenda items. Thanks.

Appointment Letters:

Yes, they are coming. I admit that I have been engaged in some bad “avoidance behaviors” but hope to get these underway and in the e-mail to Chairs in September and to Committee members by the end of October.

On Friday, October 24 I had lunch with Emily, Tara and Lynn. We discussed GODORT’s advocacy agenda and our strategic planning effort (ALA is happy to see us planning for our future).
One of the key concerns from the ALA/WO is communication, particularly with the ALA Council. As many of you know several of our members have moved on to Council and are now seen as the voice of GODORT when in fact, they are not currently elected officers of GODORT. I reiterated that Mary Mallory, as the GODORT Councilor, is the only person authorized by GODORT to speak for the Roundtable at Council. I pointed out that if there is a question about what is GODORT’s official position and Mary is not available then “big ALA” has to be reminded by Emily or Lynn to communicate with the elected officers. To some extent it is ALA’s duty to know who the representatives are and to question statements about GODORT' position that don’t come from one of the current elected or appointed officers. My take on this conversation was that Emily and Lynn were reluctant to question ALA Council members, particularly some “older hands” in ALA. Mary, this may require you to be more vocal on the Council list when someone professes to speak – or is perceived as speaking for GODORT.

We also talked about the two proposed ALA wide meetings being considered. The first, which came out of the discussions around GODORT’s letter on shared regionals, would deal with communication issues between the divisions and roundtables and may take place in November. The second, which came out of the proposal at annual by GIS, would be a “dialog” devoted to government information policy in general with the goal of getting closer to “one voice” on issues. Emily seemed to understand the importance that GODORT attaches to this issue and assured me that we would have support for a strong voice at the meeting.
Finally, we talked about the e-government initiative and the federal libraries subcommittee and I again stressed our interest in both efforts. Aimee Quinn continues to be our contact person on ALA’s e-government imitative. The appointments to the federal libraries subcommittee have not yet been finalized.

Advocacy Training:

Following on the discussion at Annual the ALA/WO has arranged for GODORT to take part in their advocacy training. This will be held on Wednesday, from 1:30 to 3:30 (during the FDLP). Folks can bring luggage, etc., and it is okay if you need to leave early for a flight. There will be no charge, and ALA/WO will provide some refreshments. Stephanie Vance will conduct most of the training, with Lynn and Tara helping out. More details and directions to follow. It will be open to any interested GODORT member.

Virtual Membership (VM):

ALA is putting together a task force to explore the issues related to VM and I have asked/proposed John Hernandez to represent GODORT on the TF. Not all proposed members will be appointed and I will keep you posted on this. Please don’t forget that I have also asked each of you to work with your committees to consider how you would use a virtual member and I will be looking for some input on this.

GODORT/SLA program at FDLP:

The program for this year is entitled: How Do Journalists Use Government Information? It will include presentations by New York Times reporter Scott Shane (http://tinyurl.com/2nfugw) and Washington Post research editor Alice Crites, MLS (http://tinyurl.com/2mrybn). DATE: Monday, October 15; TIME: 7:00 p.m.; PLACE: Crystal City Doubletree Hotel [www.doubletreecrystalcity.com]. Peggy Garvin of SLA is trying to arrange for food but asks me to let everyone know not to expect the same quality as last year.

GODORT website and the Wiki:

Please be sure to review and update your main pages. Having the correct contact information and materials in place is so very important to our ability to communicate with our members.
PPM:

Please review the appropriate sections. If changes are needed please discuss with your Committee and then forward the proposals to Valerie Glenn, Bylaws and Organizations Chair.
Past Minutes:

Please review the past minutes for your committee/TF and, if needed, make sure that all of the minutes are complete and up-to-date.

Thank you all for the support and guidance you have offered thus far. I really appreciate all the help and feel like I am learning a great deal about ALA. By the time I cycle off as Chair I may have figured everything out (or not) ….
Cheers,
Bill